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  • What besides RAM prob can cause complete system lockups while gaming?
SonderKommando
Eat, Lift, Grow, Repeat....
+564|6938|The darkside of Denver
Im so frustrated w/ my gaming machine.. I get complete lock ups while gaming sometimes... after about ten to fifteen minuets.. I can restart and its fine... Its not the ram, i already went through all that, ran memtest overniht more than once w/ no errors... starting to think its not hardware related...

BTW CPU temp is around 39-40c idle 50ish load, not heat......


Any suggestions? I just wish there was a diagnostic tool that you could just run and it would say "insert component here" is fucked... plz RMA.. lol... Specs in sig....(except OS, Vista 64bit)

Last edited by <SS>SonderKommando (2008-02-08 18:30:47)

mtb0minime
minimember
+2,418|6933

Videocard overheating? It is "superclocked", but I don't think that should be a problem.

Try lowering the video settings and clocking the videocard slower and then play some games and see if that does anything.
SonderKommando
Eat, Lift, Grow, Repeat....
+564|6938|The darkside of Denver
Mtb,  you know I think that may be part of it, i dont have a temp program for the gpu, wanna suggest one?  But i was just thinking that if it was the video card overheating would it simply lock up like that or would it start to artifact and chugg first?  Cause in BF2 while playing its silky never below 70fps then bango, it locks up, whatever sound was going on just loops and loops.. I have to restart to get out of it, no tabbing out and i cannot kill the app w/ task manager....
jaymz9350
Member
+54|6856
Rivatuner will tell you everything about your vid card.  Have you tried running the CPU @ stock and see if it does it then too?  There is also the possibilty your PSU is going bad or underpowere (not listed in sig so I don't know what it is)
SpIk3y
Minister of Silly Walks
+67|6418|New Jersey
Would a reformat be too much trouble?  That seems to solve a lot of problems that have no obvious solutions, like this one.  If the problem persists after the reformat, you know it's hardware related.
mtb0minime
minimember
+2,418|6933

Like Jaymz said, Riva Tuner is a great program (though I just use the ATi Catalyst Control center, but you can't use that with nVidia cards I don't think).

Try lowering the clock and upping the fan speed (can do this through Riva Tuner), as well as lowering your settings, and play some games. If things are fine, raise the clock a little and put the fan speed back to normal, and raise your video settings little by little. Keep going until you find what settings screw you up.

I suggest first just lowering your video settings to the absolute lowest without doing anything to clocks. If it runs fine, then put your settings back up and lower the clock stuff. Then just keep raising your clocks back up until it starts crashing again. Once it does, just go back down a little bit.

I'm really leaning towards the clock speeds since an 8800 GT should have no problems whatsoever playing any of the games out there.
chittydog
less busy
+586|7114|Kubra, Damn it!

<SS>SonderKommando wrote:

What besides RAM prob can cause complete system lockups while gaming?
Herpes.
Dragonclaw
Member
+186|6584|Florida
Everest is also good at telling temperatures for the whole system. It might be your CPU overheating.
SonderKommando
Eat, Lift, Grow, Repeat....
+564|6938|The darkside of Denver
Update.  My psu is an 680w Aspire psu i have plenty of amps on teh 12v rails so power is not an issue, nor is heat.  I checked teh CUP HSF and temps for the cpu @ 2.4 GHZ is 40 idle high fifties to sixty load...

ok, pc runs great w. three gigs of ram, add the fourth and bam, thats when i get teh lock ups.  I either have a bad stick or my mobo doesnt like four gigs.  either way something is gonna get rma'd....

BTW:  i took the overclock off teh cpu a few weeks ago, not it.  it was stable, lol i forgot i already have Riva Tuner... it says gpu core is 40C?? kinda cool for a G92 8800GT?? seeing as its single slot active cooled... anyways, gonna have corsair RMA this stick (might as well get a free matched pair of new sticks), if i have more issues, gonna rma the board through EVGA.  Kinda not sure who to curse...

Last edited by <SS>SonderKommando (2008-02-08 22:19:28)

Pokoyo
Member
+2|6213

<SS>SonderKommando wrote:

Update.  My psu is a 680 Aspire psu...

ok, pc runs great w. three gigs of ram, add the fourth and bam, thats when i get teh lock ups.  I either have a bad stick or my mobo doesnt like four gigs.  either way somethign is gonna get rma'd....

BTW:  i took the overclock off teh cpu a few weeks ago, not it.  it was stable, lol i forgot i already have rivatuna... it says gpu core is 40C?? kinda cool for a G92 8800GT?? seeing as its single slot active cooled... anyways, gonna have corsair RMA this stick, if i have more issues, gonna rma the board through EVGA.
Couldn't you just try different variations of RAM to see if one stick, one slot, or the whole motherboard is broken?
SonderKommando
Eat, Lift, Grow, Repeat....
+564|6938|The darkside of Denver
sort of.  I narrowed it down to teh stick that it would lock up with then tested it in slots 2 and four.  either its bad, or the mobo is bad.
mtb0minime
minimember
+2,418|6933

Good job. Hopefully everything gets fixed
topal63
. . .
+533|6997

<SS>SonderKommando wrote:

sort of.  I narrowed it down to teh stick that it would lock up with then tested it in slots 2 and four.  either its bad, or the mobo is bad.
Your ram config. is confusing to me?

You can't use 4GB on 32bit OS. PCI slots reserve a portion of 32bit (4GB limit) to themselves. So if the GT has 512mb of Video Memory... the max leftover is 3.5GB of addressable space. If other hardware is installed it can eat more. Two PCI 8800 GT's in SLI would leave only 3GB of space. And so on...

The best typical ram installation on a 32bit OS, is 3GB. 2GB of 2 x 1 GB dual channel memory + 1GB of 2 x 512mb of dual channel memory. That way your not buying what you cannot use.

_____

PS: The only reason I am telling you this is because if you do narrow it down to the memory and leave say 3GB in 1GB sticks in - it will lower the performance of the memory. As the 1GB stick is not a dual channel installation anymore. Dual channel is faster than single channel. Just in case you don't know.

Last edited by topal63 (2008-02-08 23:46:27)

SonderKommando
Eat, Lift, Grow, Repeat....
+564|6938|The darkside of Denver
i have vista 64 bit... in op.... supports four gigs.
SonderKommando
Eat, Lift, Grow, Repeat....
+564|6938|The darkside of Denver
Update: 

So someone suggested that i up my voltage to 2.2v from 2.1 with all four gigs.  running stable now.. Why would i need to up my voltage for more memory?? Can someone explain how RAM voltage works and why it needs to be increased for more ram?  I found the tips on the EVGA forums for the 680i board and from a fellow clan member who has similar Corsair ram. 

I actually have five of these DIMMS ( 1 gb modules), last time I actually had bad ram, i sent Corsair one DIMM and they sent me a matched pair in return.  So I have one extra that i know is good.  Its my fourth stick right now (slot 4) running stable at 2.2v 4-4-4-12.

Last edited by <SS>SonderKommando (2008-02-09 18:37:32)

Dragonclaw
Member
+186|6584|Florida

<SS>SonderKommando wrote:

Update: 

So someone suggested that i up my voltage to 2.2v from 2.1 with all four gigs.  running stable now.. Why would i need to up my voltage for more memory?? Can someone explain how RAM voltage works and why it needs to be increased for more ram?  I found the tips on the EVGA forums for the 680i board and from a fellow clan member who has similar Corsair ram. 

I actually have five of these DIMMS ( 1 gb modules), last time I actually had bad ram, i sent Corsair one DIMM and they sent me a matched pair in return.  So I have one extra that i know is good.  Its my fourth stick right now (slot 4) running stable at 2.2v 4-4-4-12.
Im not as well versed in this as others, but voltage plays a major part in RAM stability. Sometimes RAM doesnt come with the right timings set, and you have to manually set them right.
Bertster7
Confused Pothead
+1,101|6860|SE London

Dragonclaw wrote:

<SS>SonderKommando wrote:

Update: 

So someone suggested that i up my voltage to 2.2v from 2.1 with all four gigs.  running stable now.. Why would i need to up my voltage for more memory?? Can someone explain how RAM voltage works and why it needs to be increased for more ram?  I found the tips on the EVGA forums for the 680i board and from a fellow clan member who has similar Corsair ram. 

I actually have five of these DIMMS ( 1 gb modules), last time I actually had bad ram, i sent Corsair one DIMM and they sent me a matched pair in return.  So I have one extra that i know is good.  Its my fourth stick right now (slot 4) running stable at 2.2v 4-4-4-12.
Im not as well versed in this as others, but voltage plays a major part in RAM stability. Sometimes RAM doesnt come with the right timings set, and you have to manually set them right.
Pretty much right. That's what I'd have suggested (either that or loosening the timings or lowering the memory frequency - always loosen everything up if you start having problems). Higher voltage makes stuff more stable - an easy (but not completely accurate) way of looking at it is thinking of voltage as the amplitude of the signal. Transitions from positive to negative voltage take time and running at higher voltages makes the transition time from an unambiguous +ve or -ve signal faster and hence more likely to provide a correct answer when sampled at higher frequencies. Ambiguity makes the system crash, because if it (the system) can't tell if it's reading a 1 or a 0 then it has to guess and if it gets it wrong, you get unpredictable crashing.

Make sense?

Last edited by Bertster7 (2008-02-10 11:50:00)

SonderKommando
Eat, Lift, Grow, Repeat....
+564|6938|The darkside of Denver

Bertster7 wrote:

Dragonclaw wrote:

<SS>SonderKommando wrote:

Update: 

So someone suggested that i up my voltage to 2.2v from 2.1 with all four gigs.  running stable now.. Why would i need to up my voltage for more memory?? Can someone explain how RAM voltage works and why it needs to be increased for more ram?  I found the tips on the EVGA forums for the 680i board and from a fellow clan member who has similar Corsair ram. 

I actually have five of these DIMMS ( 1 gb modules), last time I actually had bad ram, i sent Corsair one DIMM and they sent me a matched pair in return.  So I have one extra that i know is good.  Its my fourth stick right now (slot 4) running stable at 2.2v 4-4-4-12.
Im not as well versed in this as others, but voltage plays a major part in RAM stability. Sometimes RAM doesnt come with the right timings set, and you have to manually set them right.
Pretty much right. That's what I'd have suggested (either that or loosening the timings or lowering the memory frequency - always loosen everything up if you start having problems). Higher voltage makes stuff more stable - an easy (but not completely accurate) way of looking at it is thinking of voltage as the amplitude of the signal transitions from positive to negative voltage take time and running at higher voltages makes the transition time from an unambiguous +ve or -ve signal faster and hence more likely to provide a correct answer when sampled at higher frequencies. Ambiguity make the system crash, because if it (the system can't tell if it's reading a 1 or a 0 then it has to guess and if it gets it wrong, you get unpredictable crashing.

Make sense?
karma good Sir.
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